Brown soot on WSM dome


 
S

ScottMelby

New member
Hello all-

I have not posted here before. I have cooked on my WSM many times, but I have never seen this happen to my smoker before. Is this the cause of some bad wood. I usually smoke with Weber brand smoking blocks of wood. This particular cook was with a little Hickory and Apple wood. I have been trying to clean it, but it is like super glue to get off. Any insight would be great on what caused this and how to get it off. It seems easier to scrape off, but I'm afraid of damaging the dome.

Thanks in advance, Scott

 
Scott, that looks like a smoke and water combination. I as well as a lot of others have asked this before cuz it looks bad when you first see it. Did you use water in your pan on this cook? Did you get an unusually large amount of smoke? The moisture condensing in the lid combined with the smoke causes that.

At any rate, if you want to clean it you can try just wetting it real good and letting it soak for a few minutes, or spray it with oven cleaner and put it in a plastic bag for 10-30 mins. It will almost rinse away after that. Then just rinse it good with soap and water.

And NO the oven cleaner does not leave a nasty smell in your smoker or on your food

Welcome to the forum!
 
Thanks for the quick reply!
I did use water in this cook, but I have used water before. The only time I got a lot of smoke, was when I added the wood after I had gotten the charcoal going, but it settled down in about 5-10 mins. and had good clean smoke the rest of the cook. Should I stop using water? or did I get a bag of last years wood from the HD. I will try to clean it again maybe with some Simple Green. If I did leave it, it would not harm anything right? It just seems thicker than the rest of the cooks I've done and not as pleasant looking as the clear coating of smoke and fat on the dome.

thanks again, Scott
 
I'll get this as well. I'll do a couple of no water cooks to get rid of it. Quick brushing to get rid of anything that is likely to flake off and then some chicken at 350 ish makes it all black and beautiful again.
 
Ditto what the other members said....
My wsm is very seasoned and use water most of the time. I don't see the brown stuff any more. But sometimes it looks flaky and I just wipe off.
 
Scott, you will have to try both methods (with and without water) to see which one you like. There are great cooks on here that use each method (I dont know Kirk too well, but Tony and Maribel are a cooking extraordinaire couple)


I use a clay saucer in place of the water pan. It really comes down to what you get comfortable with and how YOU feel the food comes out using each method
 
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